The recent Delhi High
Court judgement which puts a stay on all the punishments recommended by HLEC
(High level inquiry committee) has also put an abrupt end to the entire
movement which started in the wake of 9 Feb event. Given the Delhi High Court’s assurance of
‘conditional protection’, JNUSU’s indefinite hunger strike was withdrawn on 13th
May evening while it entered 16th day. Now, there are some issues
which need to be clarified and clearly reported to the student community. When the
JNU administration imposed the punishments on the basis of HLEC
recommendations, there was an all organization (AO) meeting which was called by
JNUSU to discuss the mode of struggle and future course of action. Since no
unanimity was arrived over choosing Hunger Strike as a mode of protest in the
said AO meeting, it was decided that we first go to the student community and
whether we sit on the hunger strike or not will be contingent upon the scale of
mobilization around the issue in question. But unfortunately as it has become
the norm in the recent past to bypass the dissenting voices, JNUSU called a
secret meeting of some organizations, namely AISA, SFI, DSF and AISF in the
name of AO meeting and took the decision to sit on the hunger strike.
Irrespective of the political and ideological differences of the organisations
every one of us are part of the ongoing struggle and even some of us sat on
hunger strike as well. Along with scrapping of the arbitrary and draconian
HLEC, there were three major demands of the hunger strike: approval of 10 per
cent relaxation for OBC candidates in qualifying exam, amendment in the recent
changes in deprivation points while keeping the gender justice in mind and
reduction in the weightage of viva voce marks from 30% to 10%. But JNUSU
and the so called left organisations promptly decided to call off the hunger
strike (and compromise the movement) as soon as the Delhi High Court provided
some relief with terms and conditions as far as the HLEC was concerned while
all the other issues of social and gender justice remained unaddressed which
were also the part of the demands of the indefinite hunger strike. The end of
political struggle on HLEC through the legal means directly translates as the
weakening of any form of struggle on the issues of the social justice and
gender justice as well.
;
On 10th of May, at the protest demonstration
outside the Academic Council meeting, when some students forcefully raised the
issues of social justice and gender equity along with the issue of HLEC, they
were accused of creating divisions and breaking the ‘unity’ of the movement by
JNUSU and so called “big, left” organizations. Though the reality is that the
unity of the collective struggle is weakened, broken and betrayed by these very
set of people at least in two ways: First, they secretly went to court,
without letting their fellow comrades know, to seek a legal solution (and in
return they got a court order which put an end to the entire movement); Second,
they created a false dichotomy between HLEC and the issues of social justice
whereas there was no need to pitch one against the other. It has been
reiterated time and again that a battle has to be fought on both legal and
political front but it has always been part of a shared understanding among the
student community that legal struggle will not prevail over political struggle.
But, owing to the inexpedient decision by some the legal struggle has started
eating up the political struggle. It should be noted that the judgement pronounced by Delhi High Court is based upon the undertakings and assurances
submitted by the individuals, as well as on behalf of JNUSU that “JNUSU as well
as its affiliated bodies would withdraw their pending strike and would not indulge
in any strike or Dharna or agitation in future in connection with the issues
before Court and/or till the legal proceedings pending as of date between the
parties attain finality. They further assure this Court that discipline on the
campus shall be maintained.”
It is amply clear from the above-mentioned “undertaking” that it functioned as a precondition for the judgment (which put the stay on the
punishments of HLEC) and the decision to discontinue the hunger strike and barring
the students from indulging in any kind of political activity except making
peaceful representation to the concerned authorities follows from the
undertakings submitted in the court. Now, the question arises that why and with
whose consultation such undertaking was submitted (on behalf of the entire
student community) which jeopardizes the entire movement? Who gave the authority to JNUSU to put the whole
struggle at stake by submitting such an undertaking without consulting the
larger student community or without convening a JNUSU council meeting or any
such mechanism available to us?
Since both these
above mentioned issues were listed in the demand of the long waged battle with the
administration along with HLEC, why JNUSU adopted an adamant attitude towards
discussing HLEC first? Or
including the other demands were merely a gesture of tokenism on the part of
JNUSU? Outside Academic Council meeting JNUTA President took a clear stand over
the issue of HLEC, the approval of 10% relaxation for OBC in the qualifying
exam and the amendment in the deprivation points system, but he refused to take
a firm position on the issue of viva voce citing the frivolous reason that
JNUTA is not a political organization like JNUSU. Keeping this in mind, we
urge to JNUSU to explore and arrive at a common minimum shared understanding
with JNUTA on the above-mentioned issues. While we are solemnly committed to
fight against HLEC as well as for the cause of social justice, also demand from
JNUSU to make every possible effort and take every possible action in order to
get AC meeting reconvened as soon as possible as the future of many students
belonging from deprived and backward sections who are appearing in JNU entrance
exam is at stake.
SFS, TNM,
United OBC Forum
Birendra,
Prashant, Saurabh, Vishal, Soumick, Vibhuti, Anubhuti, Jitendra, Talib,
Harshita, Krishnan.
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